Menu

Category Archives: News

I’ve always have my bouts of what I call, online depressions. I’m okay in the real world but sometimes I feel like shutting off online. When things just gets really though, being online feels more like a chore than something fun. I’m not even going outside, I just shut myself in my room. Sometimes, when the online depression hits me bad, I recluded myself. I delete everything online, start anew.

Before Half, I had countless of other personalities online. Every single one of them, deleted. No trace to link them. I cut off all ties with friends I made. After all, it’s easy when you don’t know the person. I was, after all, just an avatar. An unknown presence.

The online profile I had before Half, was a huge Morning Musume fan. Or rather Kamei Eri fan. I quit after she graduated, Momusu was not the same for me. It was then I realized I was just a fan of Eririn rather than a fan of the whole group. I felt ashamed and deleted everything. I stopped everything in the idol world. I didn’t look up news or listen to their new songs. For 2 years. That was my longest bout of online depression.

I started watching something else. I was engrossed with TV in that period and watched everything under the sun. Then, I watched Majisuka Gakuen 3 without any knowledge that the actresses are idols. A girl captivated me. I looked up Murashige Anna. Which brought me to HKT48. After a few months, Hakata Hyakkaten came out. I waited a few days for subs to pop up. But it didn’t. I could tell the show was great and there wasn’t much HKT48 fans back in the days. Even though my Japanese competency was like a second grader, I decided to pick it up. That was the day I became a subber.

After being Half, I had my first online depression 3 months in. My mom was just diagnosed with cancer and all my free time was dedicated to her. I had everything in my mind just to delete all that I did as Half. At the time, all I had was tumblr. It was easy. Just one delete blog button. But a message came. Two messages. Three. All asking about my whereabouts. My updates.

For the first time in my online life, I felt I was needed. I did something I’ve never done before. I came back.

I continued where I left off with Hakata Hyakkaten and finished the whole season. By myself. It felt good. Really good. For the first time in my life, I didn’t left something unfinished.

After finishing Hyakkaten, AIDOL invited me to join them. At first, I refused. I work alone. I’ve always have. It’s easier to run away, to delete everything when you work alone. I hesitated, but they managed to convinced me. I was part of their staff.

I met MAIcrosoft. Who convinced me to get my own website. My IRC channel, twitter, facebook page and all the works. Soon after, www.half48.net was born. The name Half-assed Subs was out there. Everyone in the 48G fandom, especially the english speaking HKT48 community knew me. HKT subbers pop up like mushroom. Before I knew it, most of their shows were subbed. I made friends. Lots of them. Then another bout of online depression hits me.

I stopped joining the chat, I stopped updating. But something weird happened. I missed it. I missed my newly made friends. I came back. Talked about my problems. And people helped. That was the moment I realized, I could never delete Half. I made too many precious memories and too many friends.

In 2014, Wayne and Souchan met up in Japan and went to 2-shot event together. You might remember, there was an episode from “Why did YOU come to Japan?” about them. I made a promise to myself, to go for the next 2-shot event. The next year, I did. So did 7 other people from AIDOL. It was nerve wracking. For the first time, my real self and my online profile is merging. Nervous was an understatement. I’m not as cool as Half, probably not as funny as I am online. One thing for sure, I look way different that what people expect Half to be.

But the trip went fine. And thanks to that trip, I took a few more. I met my fans and friends in Jakarta. I met MAIcrosoft in Bangkok. I met up with fans from Malaysia. I even went to Japan again with more people I knew from online. In time, they know more and more about my real self. My bouts of online depression still hits me when I get overwhelmed with work or other stupid real life stuff, but they get less and less. And the time I take off from being online gets fewer.

Sorry for being long-winded but what I’m trying to say is, I’m retiring. You’ll probably not be getting any more subs from Half-assed subs. It’s been a great 4 years as Half. 4 years ago, I decided to sub Hakata Hyakkaten and it was the best decision I ever made in my years of being an idol fan. I am forever grateful to HKT48 for bringing me back into this fandom.

I’m retiring. But I’m here. I will not delete this tumblr/website (actually the site is up to MAIcrosoft since he’s the owner)/facebook/twitter etc. I’ll be here. Always up for a chat or a meetup if ever I’m somewhere.

I’m retiring but I’m not going anywhere. Not anymore. Half is here to stay.

When I heard about AKB48 coming to Jakarta to do a collaboration concert, I was hesitant on going. On one hand, I really wanted to go but on the other, I was also saving money to go to Japan in May. But, a few weeks before the concert, they release the names of the members that are going to the concert.

The moment I saw Shimada Haruka it was a done deal. I bought the flight tickets instantly and quickly booked my place to stay. I know I’ll be seeing her again in May but May can’t come soon enough. I was determined. I’m going to this concert.

20th Feb was a Friday but I was lucky that 20th Feb is a public holiday in my country so I had the freedom to fly off on Friday morning itself. There were lots of things I had to do before the concert. Both of my colleagues (there’s only 3 in my department) are on leave for the week so I had to finish the whole week of work for 3 people before I fly on Friday. Busy was an understatement.

After finishing my work till late on Thursday, I had packed all I needed. I had my light sticks ready in my bag, 3 millions rupiah exchanged, putting 2 millions in my bag and bringing 1 million with me in my wallet. After double checking and triple checking my passport and my concert tickets, I was ready. That is when the first out of many obstacle hits me. My flight was delayed.

I was supposed to arrive in Jakarta at 11am, the morning of the concert. It was ample time for me to check in to my accommodation, then arrive at the concert hall around 2pm to meet up with people from Half48 chatroom & UKN48. Instead, my new delayed flight will make me arrive at 2.55pm. Once landed, I grabbed the first taxi service I could find to take me to my place of stay (I paid 320,000 rupiah which I now know was bloody expensive and I should have haggled the price). I was staying at Jalan Cockroaminoto which I somehow pronounced as CockroAminaSato, a mere 5km away from Kokas aka Kota Kasablanka (the concert place). I did think of going to Kokas straight away but I still have 3 hours till the concert starts and I thought I still have time. Boy, was I wrong. What I didn’t realize is 3pm on a Friday was when the traffic in Jakarta is at its worst. First 15 minutes after arriving in Jakarta and I was face to face with the infamous traffic jam a.k.a macet. The feeling of regret is starting to set in.

After paying 500,000 rupiah for my hotel deposit, I quickly threw my bags in the room and ran to the street to grab a taxi to Kokas. From my hotel to Kokas was only 20,000 rupiah, which was when the reality hit me that I paid an unreasonable amount for the taxi at the airport. After arriving at Kokas, I also realized few other things. I left my light sticks and the rest of my money in my bags at the hotel room. So there I was, in Kota Kasablanka, with 160,000 rupiah (Around 11USD) in my pocket, and 30 minutes till the door is open for the concert to start. The wifi connection in Kokas wasn’t very stable as well, so I couldn’t meet up with the other guys.

People were already queuing up. I tried looking around but there were too many people for me to find any Half48 chatroom or UKN48 people around.

Tired, worried, and losing all the excitement I had for the concert, I head on inside the concert hall. I didn’t have enough money to buy merchandise (I could buy something but then I would have no money left for dinner and for the ride back to the hotel so I decided to be an adult and hold out on the merchandise temptation). Luckily, people were giving away free glow sticks so I at least had something in my hand. The seats were separated into left and right section and since nothing in my day seems to be going right so far, I headed to the left side of the seating area.

Kage-ana started and it was Melody. Her Indonesian was clear and slow enough so I could understand most of it. (I basically can understand a bit but don’t ask me to speak Indonesian, I sound weird). Overture started and the whole concert hall, I’m not kidding, EVERYONE started to chant. The boys, the girls, the old uncles and aunties, even the 6 year old girl sitting in front of me. Although, the guy behind me was shouting “Tiger! Fire! Tiger! Fire! Jya! Jya!” on repeat but A+ for effort.

I won’t bother on posting the setlist but I’ll talk about the performance that sticks to my mind. “Kibouteki Refrain” started playing and the whole 16 AKB girls were in a straight line from one end of the stage to the other end singing the song. As the light shines on the girls, who did I see directly in front of me, singing on the left side of the stage? It was none other than my AKB oshi, Shimada Haruka. I’m probably exaggerating but my whole worry… that whole ordeal of obstacles and happenings and shitty stuff that happened to me before the concert started? It was washed away when I saw her. All the regrets I had for the concert vanished as I watch her dancing energetically with her twin-tails bouncing around.

Sitting on the edge of the hall means I get first hand view of the trolley that the AKB members climbed in on the side. I can’t remember who was the AKB member who got it on the right side, but Yui & Ryouka was on the left. And they were so close. Suddenly my choice of sitting on the left side didn’t seem so bad. I remember Mocchi got on the trolley for the left side on one song and she was breathtakingly beautiful. Just plain gorgeous. Rena was in the center position for most of the song, which was apt considering her history with JKT48. But Naachan got the most cheer whenever she is on screen.

The MC sessions were fun and easy to follow along even though they used a mix of Japanese and Indonesians. The girls were engaging and funny. And I swear I’m not being biased, but Shimada was hilarious. She was not afraid to make fun of herself and I love when the whole hall just burst into laughter every time she shouts the word “Kurus! (Skinny)”.

The concert started with AKB then a few songs mixes AKB members with JKT members. After a few songs, JKT48 starts to perform. My attention immediately went to Team T, the newly formed team when they sang “Wink wa Sankai“. The MC after the JKT48 performance was an AKB vs JKT game which was awesome. It felt like I was watching a variety show, except in a huge hall with all my friends.

After the little competition, it was a bit of a shuffle as they mix up a few AKB and JKT members to sing songs. Mocchi stands out so much in “Blue Rose” but Naomi from JKT wasn’t about to give in. She fit in quite well with Mocchi, Chikarina and Aaya because for a second there I was wondering which AKB member was the 4th girl before I realized that she is from JKT.

Rena, Ayana & Andela performed “Heart Gata Virus” and it was clear that this is Rena’s song. The special video at the beginning of the song focused on her. Here is a girl, who traveled here and there during her childhood but somehow ended up in Jakarta. She found a home in JKT48. And it shows. The reception of fellow JKT members and the fans towards her was so apparent, it was touching. I don’t think if Haruka or Chikarina goes back to Japan would they got this level of attention. Even through her performance I could feel that she is saying to her fans, “Tadaima” or “I’m back“. I even forgot the fact that this is a 3-person unit as all my eyes could focus was on Rena at the center. Only when the other fans started chanting, “A~yana! A~yana! Ayana! Ayana!” then I realized, “Oh yeah, my JKT Oshi is in this unit too. Haha.”

“Ame no Doubutsuen” was the first song that some other girl stole my attention from Shimada. Kinal was playful and energetic, teasing JKT and AKB members alike. She truly captures the spirit of the song, and I find myself difficult to stop watching her. Yui & Melody sang “Temo Demo Namida” and Yui went up the left trolley. I hate to brag but she basically sang that song while looking at me. Well, not directly at me but towards my general area.

The concert goes back to AKB performing and then back to JKT performing, with MCs to keep us entertained in the middle. The highlight for me was the last song, “Sakura no Hanabiratachi”. During MCs, the fans constantly needed reminder to be silent. Members and other fans keep shushing and telling us to keep it quiet in order to hear what the other member is saying. But not for this song. As the spotlight hits Sakiko, without anyone telling us to, the whole concert hall fell silent. She plays the first few piano notes, perfectly playing the familiar sounds of bell chiming in the beginning of Sakura no Hanabiratachi, and captivating all of us with her fingers.

Once the song start, everyone in the hall altogether started singing the lyrics in Japanese (romaji lyrics on screen helped). Every time the camera focuses on the girls, there were looks of surprise and awe. All of us were swaying our glow sticks from left to right and singing along with the girls. In that moment, it felt like all of us were one. As the song ended, I can’t help but feel teary eyed. I don’t know whether it was the lyrics of the song, indicating graduation and end of a journey as if this concert is coming to an end, or the unity of the fans and the members.

The girls bid their farewell and for the first time in this concert, I checked the time. Almost clocking 2 hours plus and I didn’t even realized it. I really enjoyed the concert but the minute the concert ends and I had two thoughts:

Damn, I wished they sang “First Rabbit”

Man, Shimada didn’t even get to ride that trolley thing at all (left or right side)

I was waiting for someone to start an encore shout and was glad someone started just a few minutes after the concert ended. The curtains open back again with all of them singing “After rain” followed by “10 Nen Zakura”. Then, my miracle happened. The familiar first few beats of “First Rabbit” started and I immediately recognized it. But I look on my left to find out that Shimada was on the trolley and I just lost all my shit. I think I lost my voice that night after shouting her name so much. It was a bloody perfect encore.

I managed to get a proper wifi connection after the concert ended. I met up with Mocil, Ixarus, Ryan, Araishikeiwai (Or Rick as I call him) and a few friends of theirs. I met Ryan when he came to my country a few weeks prior so there was no mystery there. But meeting Ixa, Mocil and Rick was awesome as I’ve been chatting with Ixa & Mocil in our Half48 chatroom for almost 2 years and this was the first time for me meeting them. It was the first of many for me to actually go out and meet my online friends. Before, I always hide behind my online profiles but “Half” is my first one that makes me feel that I really made a connection with people. So, I decided to break out of my comfort shell and actually meet my online friends. They were just the lucky ones to meet me first, and more in the future was yet to come.

They took me to eat Sate Padang. Which was good, because I was starving. Lucky for them, the 160,000 rupiah I had was enough for the food and the ride back home. I really didn’t want to be the asshole who borrows money the first time we meet, haha.

The next day, I met up with Ixa and Rick again to try to get into AnDare’s recording at JKT48’s theater.

Too bad we couldn’t get in so we opted for Japanese food instead. I’ve watched JKT48 theater before back in 2013 and I can’t remember why I didn’t apply for theater tickets on this trip. Either there was no show or I felt like I didn’t have the time.

On Sunday, I was already in an early flight back home and my 3 days in Jakarta ended quickly. Looking back, the concert was the best 3 hours of my night. And to think my flight was delayed, I had 3 hours to get to the concert, 2 of those hours was stuck in traffic, with little money, and couldn’t find my friends, feeling down as hell but the girls were so energetic and funny and amazing and it just made me feel glad that I decided to come after all.

Between attending the concert and actually meeting other fans, I was so glad I came. And it got me proper excited for my Japan trip in May. I will be attending my first 2-shot event and making my first trip to Japan. Just thinking about it makes me nervous and excited.

Heya everyone! It has been a while since you heard form us but we are certainly not dead! For this year we have some nifty stuff for you to come, to enrich your 48 groups experience on the web.

This is the first of it! Here is this little silly thing I have been working on since like 2013… It’s finally far enough so we can release it. So hereby I present you our new project, our new website: FAQ48!

The idea of FAQ48 is very simple. It’s just like Yahoo answers, but dedicated to 48 groups! Just try it out and have some fun on it 😀

Also, your Half48 account works on FAQ48 too, so you can start playing wiht it right away! 🙂 If you really like it, please let us know what you think of it and what we can improve on it 😀

Sorry for the long absence. Real life got in the way and I hardly have any time left for subbing.

BUT good news! This is something I have been planning on doing for awhile so I’m glad it’s somewhat done. I had bigger visions for it but for now, I think it’s good enough for a public release. XD

So this is a complete masterlist of all the subbed AKBingo episodes I know. Some of you may have stumbled upon my GDrive masterlist of it, which is actually a reference doc I made for myself, and this site is more of what I envision of it in the first place.

For now, it’s only on my tumblr, hopefully in the near future I can figure out how to implement it on this site as well. Like I said, this is probably around 30% done, I have so much more I would like to do with it that will maybe take a much longer time. So head on to my tumblr and hopefully some of you will find this helpful.

Originally I just wanted to keep this a fun post on Facebook page, but since it got pretty popular I thought I should also add it here on the site for the rest of the world to enjoy who never frequent Facebook.

Anyways, this is the story. At first I thought this was common knowledge, but apparently everyone I tell about doesn’t know this. Everyone should know this, so I’ll tell you now. The thing is that Nogizaka46’s logo’s corner is exactly 46 degrees. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the logo for the first time. I was like, hmm that’s prolly not 45 degrees judging by their name.

This level of detail is really awesome though! I really love “hidden” things like this 😀

Hello everyone! I have a huge announcement to make. Maybe you already know it if you follow BlueMentaiko, but I can proudly tell you that BlueMentaiko has joined the Half48 Network and blue’s new site is now running on the same system as us!

Like I said before, http://BlueMentaiko.net/ is now running on the same system as us. This means you can use your existing Half48 Account (if you have one) to do stuff like commenting on http://BlueMentaiko.net/ too! That’s not all, but there will be sites added in the future where you also can use the same account.

All the articles from BlueMentaiko’s old site are transferred to the new site so you don’t miss out on anything. Even the comments are transferred 🙂

I was without a laptop for a few months hence the lack of updates. But thanks to a bunch of generous people who donated, I managed to snatch myself an awesome Lenovo laptop which I name Lenovo-tan. (Creative, I know.)

For the people who donated, you know who you are and I promise I’ll pay you back in subs.

In the meantime, here’s what I’m doing right now. A lot of subs I need to catch up with.

Helping AIDOL with Mechaike special.

Helping Yukirin AIDOL with a secret Amina project

Tonkotsu subs

Some HKT Variety 48 subs collaboration with Unko48 UKN48

A special masterlist that would definitely be helpful

Finishing my fanfic that I wrote when I was without a laptop because I was bored

Finally the long awaited Watarirouka Hasiritai / 7 collection is coming! After 2 years of silence they finally decided to officially disband and release this awesome last album which has close to everything WH/7!

I’m a big fan of WH/7 and I thought to share this with all of you. I already pre-ordered it and I can’t wait for the mail person to arrive with it in early 2014 since the album is going to be released on the 25th of december.

There will be a ‘Normal’ edition (about 1800 yen) which contains 2 audio cd’s with all WH/7 songs and there will be a ‘Super Complete Edition’ (about 5800 yen) which will contain the same content as the ‘Normal’ edition but it will come with an extra audio CD with even more songs, and 2 DVD’s with pretty much all the MV’s, dance shot’s and some extra content. The super complete edition will also come with a 52-page photobook which is pretty awesome!

If you are interested to pre-order the album as well, here’s some links 😀

Hello everyone, this is Mai here. So as you all may know, Half is just back from a mandatory break because his laptop is basically dead. That is one of the main reasons why there was no release for a while. He does not have a new laptop yet, but he can at least communicate with us on his phone :p He is planning on buying a new laptop somewhere in November after he gets a new job. I thought, maybe we can do a little donation drive so he can buy a slightly better laptop and we can have slightly better subs 8-D

This is not a mandatory thing. This is for charity, which is Half’s new laptop in this case. It does not matter if or if you don’t donate and if you do donate, how much you donate. We all like Half and his subs and I just would like to let him have good stuffs to work with 🙂 It could be as low as $0.10 or as high as $1000, that is all up to you. Any donation is highly appreciated! He sooner he can get a new laptop the faster he can get subbing again LOL 8-D